Follow my joyful struggle to live healthy and live well in this life *after* weight loss!

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Dealing with Stress and Stress Eating

Slightly stressful day yesterday - realizing that my teaching job is coming to an end in a couple of weeks and that there aren't that many more contract projects for me to do with the company I am working with.

Jobs, finances, etc, one of the MAJOR stressors in life, right?

I took a breath, talked to Chris, tried not to get worked up into a full blown panic attack (as I have been known to do when a huge stressor settles upon my shoulders). I have savings. I am saving the money I am making from this contract job. I have several months to find a job. I will work hard at doing it. I will hope that everything works out.

I did stress eat a little yesterday - ate an extra serving of chocolate, too much sunflower seed butter, etc. I was so full by dinner time that I actually didn't make myself a meal - Chris ate leftover pulled pork and I just had a few slices of deli turkey on lettuce wraps. Definitely made the right decision to put the brakes on eating last night (though I wanted to just dive right into a huge plate of food for some temporary comfort... but that is obviously an old behavior that has never helped me in the long run!). Weighed in at 122 on the dot today :)

This link has some good advice on how to deal with stress in the short and long term: Four Ways to Deal with Stress from the American Heart Association (obviously we don't want to be stressing our hearts out, where would we be without them???).

Therapy, Buddhist thought, and careful self-examination has helped me recognize when I am getting too stressed and how to deal with it. Stressing ages us in so many ways - causes inflammation, stress on our hearts, ruins our skin, causes weight gain, etc. It also makes life suck.

Overeating is NOT the way to deal with stress - it only SEEMS to lessen stress temporarily. Then it comes back with more force than before, causing an awful cycle.

Take care of yourselves <3

At the office right now, prepping the final exam. I brought some baked chicken and sweet potatoes for my lunch:

Also feeling kind of cute today, despite a near-miss with a meltdown yesterday:

Sounds like you caught yourself in time from having a full out stress breakdown, so that's a GOOD thing! You are developing new habits and mindsets that allow you to catch yourself in the middle of a fall, and that's SO important. You are doing great!

Yeah I find myself stressing over money quite a bit too (as the main money maker who's about to be out for a good month with no income because I'm self employed, so no maternity leave, and as the one who is responsible for finances in our house...). But you are right, you have savings, you have time to find a job, so just continue to plan ahead. Great job on not letting the stress eating get out of control.

Ooh, your lunch looks yum! That's fabulous that you nipped the stress eating right away - best to find any other way to deal with stress. My favorite is to go for a walk. Depending how stressed I am, it can be a long, challenging walk, LOL but that's a good thing! :) Good luck in your job search, I'm sure you'll do well.

This Is For Life

About Me

I am an early thirties woman who has only been "normal weight" for about 7 years (maintaining over a 70 pound loss). I am still struggling to accept and maintain this new body. I am the OTHER side of weight loss.
I am a proponent of real world exercise, eating paleo/primal, and clean/organic food.